What's Included: A 6-hour van service / Skip-the-line tickets to the Monet Foundation

Overview

Giverny is a story of love at first sight. One day, the painter Monet saw the place while passing along by train. He thought it could be an appropriate place to live and work. He rented then purchased the building and its grounds called la Maison du Pressoir (apple mill house). With this apparently trivial decision, Monet changed the course of his career and the destiny of the village and surrounding region.

After a 2-hour drive from Paris in a private car, you’ll arrive in Giverny. This lovely village, located on the Epte riverbanks in Normandy, has become a famous place worldwide thanks to Claude Monet. With the help of your guide, you will enjoy a pleasant stroll. With its old-style stone houses, its flowery alleys and its panoramic views over the countryside, Giverny offers a typical Normandy landscape.

Get the best of Giverny with this private tour focusing on Monet Garden

The house was restored such as it was before Monet’s death (1926). Its vividly colored rooms show the owner's rich pictorial nature. A beautiful collection of Japanese prints reminds us of the influence this art had on Impressionism.

During the summer months, flowers cover the paths and lanes as freely as Monet’s brushstrokes covered his canvases. Moreover, the artist arranged colorful flowerbeds with the same method he organized his own palette, providing his eyes with color sources and references. According to him, Nature and Art merged as one.

Through a short underground path, you’ll reach the Japanese Garden, a truly Claude Monet creation. You’ll stroll around the famous Water-Lily Pond and cross the Japanese footbridge surrounded by fragrant wisterias. Monet used this garden as a pattern and painted it repeatedly until his death, without ever growing tired of the harmony of flowers, water, sky and their reflections.

You will then enjoy a time of leisure in the village for lunch, overlooking the Baudry Inn, where American painters found accommodation when they traveled to Giverny to pay tribute to the Master of Impressionism. Up on the hillside, the peaceful cemetery contains Monet’s grave. From there, he eternally gazes upon the landscapes he loved so much. After this Giverny & Monet Garden tour, you’ll no longer wonder why.

What if we are more than 4 people?

Just advise us in your request form about the number of people in your party, as well as their category (adult or child), so we’ll be able to tell you about the extra fee per additional person.

What plants and flowers will I see during my visit?

Each season is charming in Monet’s Giverny gardens. Spring is the time of the blooming of hyacinths, narcissus, daffodils, tulips and apple trees. Late May is perfect for poppies and the famous paths of irises. From April to June the Japanese bridge is covered with gorgeous wisterias. June is the month of roses and the first white, pink and yellow water-lily buttons on the Japanese pond. In early fall, dahlias and gladiolas can be seen as well as the orange and yellow tinted foliage around the pond.

What else can be visited in Giverny?

In the village itself there is an interesting Impressionist Museum. The close-by city of Vernon could also provide an interesting extension to your tour with its old medieval houses, its beautiful collegiate church and the banks of the Seine. We have plenty of suggestions for you, feel free to contact us.

Can I combine this Giverny & Monet Garden tour with another cultural place of interest?

If you wish to extend your tour length to 10 hours, this discovery of Giverny could be perfectly combined with other cultural places of interest. For a Versailles and Giverny tour, click here. For Giverny and Chantilly or Auvers-sur-Oise (or any other location) please contact us.